The new Women's Center and Vein Center includes renovated mammography and bone density suites, and now allows for same-day breast ultrasound and breast MRI. The Vein Center provides diagnosis and treatment for varicose veins, leg pain and unsightly veins.

Northeast Regional Medical Center CEO Eric Barber hoped the moves would give residents not only more efficient care locally, but one fewer reason to head out of town for health care services.

"The goal here was to package the service line together to make it more convenient by making it more expedient," he said.

Dr. Charles Zeman said the addition of a stereotactic biopsy machine greatly increases the speed in which patients can be diagnosed.

"We can do breast biopsies in less than a half an hour with microinvasion," he said, adding that results can be back within 24-48 hours.

"We've put a lot of effort into making this a much better facility for women's health," Dr. Zeman said.

Barber called the Vein Center an "unmet need in our community."

"We have the appropriate training and we've acquired the appropriate machinery to do the procedures," Barber said. "I'm happy to say we've already had our first two patients in our Vein Center."

Dr. Dana Valencia and Dr. Eliot Nissenbaum, of NRMC's Northeast Heart Center, as well as NRMC's Dr. Kent Blanke, will work with patients in the Vein Center. Dr. Valencia said it was important to note that undiagnosed venous disease goes far beyond varicose veins, which while painful are often thought of as a cosmetic issue, and can lead to something as serious as heart failure.

"Venous insufficiency is underdiagnosed," Dr. Valencia said. "It's five times more prevalent than heart disease and twice as prevalent as arterial disease."

The renovation is only the latest in a series of projects at NRMC, with Barber noting much work going into "dressing up" areas that needed to be updated.